The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity (1972), written by Ashley Montagu, is a biography of John Merrick.

Another biography, The True History of the Elephant Man by Michael Howell and Peter Ford (1992), attempts to provide a medical diagnosis for Merrick's condition.

Fredrick Dimmer's Born Different: Amazing Stories of Very Different People (1988) contains a chapter devoted to John Merrick.

Published in 1992, Articulating the Elephant Man: Joseph Merrick and His Interpreters was written by Peter Graham and Fritz H. Oehlschlaeger. The book examines how Merrick's story became a phenomenon that captured the attention of so many people.